New Winnebago County 800 Mhz. TRS TGIDS

[taz54902]

you will need a digital scanner to monitor the new winnebago county trunk system

 

[medicwis]

programing winnebago scanners

yes sir i have several digital and not able to program my self. looking for someone to do. will pay. thanks

 

[Cellsite]

Winnebago Co. system on a PRO-96

I'm still not able to monitor anything on the new Winnebago Co. TRS with a Radio Shack PRO-96. Anyone successfully hearing talkgroups on this model of radio?

 

[tmak26]

Being very new to trunking I can only share what I've learned in the past couple of weeks.

You will have to replace the Pro96 with the Pro106 (which is hard to find. I believe them to be out of production.) or the Unden 396XT. Both of these are hand held units. There is also an Unden HP1 (Home Patrol) which programs itself.

Where in Wisconsin are you located? I'm in Menasha.

 

[Cellsite]

"You will have to replace the Pro96 with the Pro106 (which is hard to find. I believe them to be out of production.) or the Unden 396XT. Both of these are hand held units. There is also an Unden HP1 (Home Patrol) which programs itself."

Yeah, that is what I'm afraid of. Just trying to find out what about the PRO-96 doesn't work with this new system. It has to be something to do with narrowbanding or such.

I've always had Radio Shack/GRE scanners in the past, but I'm seriously considering either the HomePatrol or the 396XT now.

I'm in the Neenah area.

 

[tmak26]

I considered them all and chose the 396XT and planning to use FreeScan to program it. All the reading I did had me very concerned about programming until I found the FreeScan program. Seems pretty straightforward and I am much more less intense about programming. now!.

 

[medicwis]

winnebago 800megs

"You will have to replace the Pro96 with the Pro106 (which is hard to find. I believe them to be out of production.) or the Unden 396XT. Both of these are hand held units. There is also an Unden HP1 (Home Patrol) which programs itself."

Yeah, that is what I'm afraid of. Just trying to find out what about the PRO-96 doesn't work with this new system. It has to be something to do with narrowbanding or such.

I've always had Radio Shack/GRE scanners in the past, but I'm seriously considering either the HomePatrol or the 396XT now.

I'm in the Neenah area.

sorry to say i have a home patrol and it wont receive them either

 

[Cellsite]

sorry to say i have a home patrol and it wont receive them either

Really? Well, that answers that question. So now I would like to know for sure if the BCD396XT will do the job. Outagamie Co. will be online this summer, so I need something that will work with both counties.

Sure would be nice to know what it is about this 9600 baud digital system that doesn't work with the PRO-96 and the HomePatrol.

 

[towertech]

I am no expert on the Pro-96, but from what I can find, depending on what version firmware your Pro-96 has, you may need to update the firmware to enable receiving 9600 Baud P25 Linear Simulcast Modulation (CQPSK). Here are the download links:

http://support.radioshack.com/Download/software/pro96u12_Instr.pdf
http://support.radioshack.com/Download/software/pro96u12.exe

One other concern is whether the Pro-96 can do the correct frequency step, without rounding-off the frequency.

Other than that, the Pro-96 should receive Winnebago & Outagamie just fine on 800 Mhz.

The current Uniden HP-1, 396XT & 996XT series, GRE PSR 500/600, PSR-800, RS Pro 106, PRO 197, should all be fine as well, assuming they were correctly programmed in the first place.

As with any consumer-grade scanner, there will still be issues receiving the simulcast P25 digital signals depending on your location, even after the firmware upgrade. An 800 mhz. directional antenna to minimize the multi-path signal distortion will help greatly IF you are having problems.

Remember, the signal strength is usually pretty good all over the county, the problem is if you are receiving signals from more than one tower at the same time, which arrive at your antenna at slightly different times (out of phase).

On analog television signals, this signal multi-pathing would cause 'ghosting' of the picture. On P25 digital, you will hear broken-up words & syllables, and lots of digital artifacts. Very ugly.

 

[Cellsite]

Hi towertech,
Yes, my PRO-96 has the last firmware update that Radio Shack put out, which is version 1.4 DSP. I don't think that is the issue, although maybe it needs to be rolled back to DSP 1.2 which I may still have someplace.

You might be on to something with the step size, though. The published control channel frequency is 859.98750 MHz. I get no decoding on that frequency, and a muffled sound from the digital CC. If I add 6.25 KHz to that, making it 859.99375 MHz, I get digital decoding anywhere from 50 to 90%. However, voice channels get assigned to the published channels with no audio, just noise. If I enter a system voice channel manually and add 6.25 KHz to it, I'll get actual voice decoded for the most part, but not always. I'm thinking the PRO-96 may need a custom table, but not sure what.

 

[kb0rpj]

the pro96 will do 800mhz p25 systems. look at the win96 software to have it program in a 800mhz 9600 CC table

 

[towertech]

As was just stated above, the Pro-96 should do P25 trunking just fine.

So assuming you have things programmed correctly, have you checked the reference oscillator freq to see if it is off?

Also curious if perhaps one of the I.F. filters is damaged?

If you have access to a service monitor, you may want to check. Program an 800 mhz. channel in analog, generate a weak signal, and offset the generator freq. +/- to where the SINAD is best and see if it is on frequency.

 

[Cellsite]

Eureka! I believe I have achieved success with the PRO-96. Adding 6.25 KHz to the control channel did indeed make it work, but as noted it assigned the standard voice channels, not ones with 6.25 added to them. I played with custom tables all night, but finally stumbled upon one that worked and that added the 6.25 KHz to the assigned channels.

Basically using a Motorola 9600 CC Custom Table and adding 6.25 KHz to the base Frequency listed in the 800 MHz extended table, making it 851.01250. Channel offset of zero and a step size of 6.25 KHz. I've been listening to several agencies now successfully, although the audio quality is very digital. That may be normal since I don't usually listen to trunked systems until now. The big question is why does the PRO-96 require the receive frequencies to be 6.25 KHz up from the trunked system frequencies to properly decode?

 

[taz54902]

if it helps anyone with programing the winnebago county system i have the PSR 600 and 500 i used the arc500 software for programing both units.I have found out that by setting the multi site feature either off or stationary and not raom it has been recieving quite well,not perfect i do get some distortion maybe about 5 % of the time.I live in Oshkosh and the 600 is at home with an outside antt. on the roof.i use the 500 in the car also with an out side ant.but also have been getting good reception on the rubber duck here in town.

 

[towertech]

Here is the IDEN and other info being broadcast by Winnebago's data channel. Note their base frequency and step size, which is what you want your channel table data to match:

FileVersion:7
-TowerInfo
#This section is here for information only. With the exception
#of the Call Sign(s), This data is not Read back into the program at all.
System ID : 4E1
System Name : Winnebago County TRS
WACN : BEE00
Tower Number (Decimal): 1-1
Tower Number (Hex) : T0101
Tower Description : Omro, WI
Control Capabilities : Data,Voice,Registration
Call Sign(s) : WQPY381
Timestamp : Tue Mar 19 20:45:29 2013

-Tables
#Format: Table ID,Base Freq,Spacing,Input Offset,Assumed/Confirmed,BandWidth,Slots
00,851.00625,0.00625,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1
01,762.00625,0.00625,30.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1
02,851.01250,0.01250,-45.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,2
03,762.00625,0.01250,30.00000,"Confirmed",0.01250,2
04,935.01250,0.01250,-39.00000,"Confirmed",0.00625,1

-Frequencies
#Format: Channel,Usage,Frequency(/Slot),Input Channel,Input Frequency(/Slot),Input Explicit(1/0),Hit Count
"00-1033","vd",857.46250,"00-1033",812.46250,0,14
"00-1077","vd",857.73750,"00-1077",812.73750,0,8
"00-1193","avd",858.46250,"00-1193",813.46250,1,7
"00-1277","ad",858.98750,"00-1277",813.98750,1,0
"00-1353","a",859.46250,"00-1353",814.46250,1,0
"00-1437","c",859.98750,"00-1437",814.98750,1,0

 

[straycat088]

"K9 Search And Rescue Trainer"

Hi From Doty Island
Hey where can I find the simulcast tower location
saw one time here now for thelife of me I cant
find the towers I belive their is 3
Thanks
Tim
"K9 Search And Rescue Trainer"

 

[towertech]

From the FCC license records:

1 - Fixed 3009 W FAIRVIEW RD
NEENAH, WI WINNEBAGO County 44-12-50.0 N, 088-32-58.0 W

2 - Fixed County Hwy F & County Hwy TT, Omro, WI 54963-9623
Omro, WI WINNEBAGO County 44-03-46.0 N, 088-46-08.0 W

3 - Fixed 3843 SAND PIT ROAD
OMRO, WI WINNEBAGO County 44-01-51.0 N, 088-39-15.0 W

4 - Fixed 4311 Jackson Dr.
Oshkosh, WI WINNEBAGO County 44-04-51.9 N, 088-32-53.4 W

5 - Mobile WINNEBAGO County, WI

Trivia fact: The Fairview Rd. Neenah site is the old National Weather Service Neenah Radar tower.

I thought they were also going to use an existing cell tower west of Waukau at one point, but don't know if they ever did.

 

[straycat088]

going on roof today not sure what way to put my yagi.Thanks
Tim
"K-9 Search And Rescue Trainer"

 

[Cellsite]

going on roof today not sure what way to put my yagi.Thanks
Tim
"K-9 Search And Rescue Trainer"

From Neenah, you would want the old NWS radar site on Fairview Rd. Pretty much due west. Now that I have a work-around for my old PRO-96, it's receiving fine in Neenah on a Radio Shack 800 MHz rubber duck.

 

[straycat088]

yeah thanks thats where its pointing
Thanks guys
Tim
"K-9 Search And Rescue Trainer"